Strategic Concepts (II)

Second Pillar

In the prelude to NATO's jubilee summit, influential German foreign policy makers are reinforcing their demands for stronger cooperation with Moscow. The EU must seek "new forms of cooperation with Russia" declared the Berlin government advisor, Alexander Rahr.[1] This is not only in regards to the approach to Afghanistan and Iran, but also for dealing with the Arab nations. Moscow's influence in the region could used "to help forward western interests." Rahr is the "Russia - Eurasia Program Director" in the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) research institute and is one of the most prominent proponents of German-Russian cooperation. At the beginning of the year, he had already made a plea for a debate on whether "Russia - perhaps alongside the USA - could not become a second European security pillar."[2] "Or will the development go more in the direction of EU-Europe soon becoming the eastern part of the United States (...)?" Rahr asks in a text appearing in the journal "Eurasisches Magazin".

NATO Replacement

Berlin had begun discussing closer cooperation with Moscow even before the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, last summer, made a plea for a new "pan-European system of security".[3] According to this plan, all nations "from Vancouver to Vladivostok" should, with a binding treaty, found a common "security system." "Europe is in need of a new system of security" confirmed Sergei Karaganov, president of the Council for Foreign and Defense Policy in Moscow, at the DGAP in the beginning of March.[4] From Karaganov's speech, it seems that the planned treaty should replace NATO. This implies that Russia would help Germany extract itself from the US dominated war alliance and entice it with the prospect of rising to parity with the United States.

Not Yet

Though NATO's replacement is not really a topic in Berlin, the German government has for years been gratefully accepting Russian proposals for cooperation. This is particularly true in military policy. Like the arms industry, the German Bundeswehr has also intensified its cooperation with Russia, which is permitting a greater degree of independence from the USA. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.[5]) The most recent example is Moscow's permission for German combat hardware logistical supplies to be transported to Afghanistan via Russian territory. At the beginning of March, German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung visited Moscow for talks on consolidation of bi-lateral cooperation, while almost simultaneously a high-ranking Russian delegation was in Berlin for talks on a "pan-European system of security". As the Parliamentary State Secretary in the German Defense Ministry, Thomas Kossendey (CDU) explained, these talks are "of utmost importance for Germany."[6] But Germany will "not yet give up its current standing in NATO and the European Union" as long as "the contours of a future architecture are not clear."

Strategic Partner

Just a few days ago German Defense Minister Jung personally reconfirmed that Berlin is not prepared to limit its cooperation with Russia, to the benefit of the western war alliance. Just a few days following his return from talks in Moscow, he authored an article to this effect in a German daily,[7] wherein he explained, "we are convinced that we need Russia as a true strategic partner." One can "neither ignore nor snub Moscow as a partner" and further: "we must therefore resume the policy of constructive engagement."

Glorious Perspective

Transatlantic critics of this German-Russian cooperation have always pointed out that it is being supported by proponents of national great power policy in both Berlin and Moscow - including nationalist strategists of the extreme right. On the Russian side, this refers to the national Bolshevik Alexander Dugin, among others. Dugin, a "Neo-Eurasism" ideologue, who is not without influence, even in the Moscow establishment, had already declared toward the end of the 1990s, that "today Germany represents an economic giant and turns out to be a political midget," Moscow, on the other hand, is "just about the opposite, a political giant and an economic cripple." "The Moscow-Berlin Axis would heal the pains of both nations" says Dugin, "and bring Russia and Germany a glorious perspective."[8] Observers note a "growing acceptance" [9] of such theories in the Russian capital. Dugin has been an "advisor" to several well-known policy makers.[10]

End of Vassalage

Unlike the Dugin case, the German right extremist milieu, supportive of the establishment of a Berlin-Moscow axis, has no access to the halls of power. "The establishment of such an axis," explained a former member of the Waffen-SS recently, "would first of all signify the dissolution of NATO and accordingly the end of the vassalage dependency on the USA."[11] Through nationalist accentuation, it also becomes clear that it is the old objective of the constantly recurring German-Russian cooperation - reaching for world power status, with Russia's support and in open rivalry to the West - and today that means above all, in open rivalry to the USA.

[1] How Should the EU Reach Out to Russia?; Spiegel Online 04.03.2009
[2] Alexander Rahr: "Die russischen Eliten sind vom Westen tief enttäuscht"; Eurasisches Magazin 01/2009
[3] Margarete Klein: Der russische Vorschlag für eine neue gesamteuropäische Sicherheitsordnung: ernst zu nehmender Vorschlag oder Spaltungsversuch? Russlandanalysen Nr. 175, 12.12.2008
[4] Russland am Beginn einer neuen Weltordnung; www.dgap.org
[5] see also Großmachtpläne, Mörderische Zusammenarbeit, Eurasien and our EXTRA-Dossier Drehkreuz Leipzig
[6] Vertrauensvolle Zusammenarbeit; www.bmvg.de 06.03.2009
[7] Franz Josef Jung: Ein neues Strategisches Konzept; Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 09.03.2009
[8] "Ostpreußen zurückgeben"; Das Ostpreußenblatt 17.01.1998
[9] Andreas Umland: "Neoeurasismus" und Antiamerikanismus als Grundbestandteile des außenpolitischen Denkens in Russland; Russlandanalysen Nr. 174, 28.11.2008
[10] see also Visions of Dominion and Raum, Volk, Imperium
[11] see also Europa der Rechtsextremisten